Call for a Resort Oasis in the Outback

A leading economist has called for the building of a Dubai-style oasis in the middle of the desert to boost Australia's tourism potential.

Access Economics director Professor Ian Harper, speaking at the Australian Tourism Directions Conference in Canberra today, said Australia's share in the international tourist market is set to drop within three years if it doesn't urgently invest in new experiences and infrastructure, such as hotels and airports.

Professor Harper stated "we need to be imaginative and think very laterally, it might make sense to build a dedicated facility in the desert which would be a major distributing hub for other parts of Australia.

"We are on the cusp of the largest movement of people into the middle class that the world has ever seen, and there's going to be plenty of demand from China and India and other parts of Asia.

"If we don't plan for ... a bonanza we're going to be sorry for that."

While Australians liked lying on the beach for holidays, Professor Harper said that's not necessarily what the nation's Asian neighbours wanted.

He noted "if we were to keep our (market) share constant we would have to build ... new hotels and rebuild our tourism structure. If we can keep our relative position as these countries move up the development curve there will be more than enough for us."

Professor Harper said Australia was too focused on mining, at the expense of services industries such as tourism, adding "tourism is one of the most regionally dispersed industries we have and a lot of tourism money finds its way to regional areas and indigenous communities."

While Australia's tourism had been struggling, due to the strong dollar and the economic downturn, Professor Harper said there was a lot of room for growth in the long term.

Tourism Australia Managing Director Andrew McEvoy said the conference, a result of the National Long-Term Tourism Strategy, will set the industryâs agenda for the next decade believing that Australia needed to increase the seats on planes coming into Australia by 50% and domestic air seats by 25% if tourism was to achieve its $140 billion potential.

McEvoy also wants to see 40,000 new beds, most in capital cities, and better regional accommodation.